Epilogue

I opened my eyes, just as though I had closed them for a moment and looked at the two young documentarists who were sitting in front of me, making notes with their new pens. Snorri had designed those new pens and Caladwen had trained the two making the notes. Together they had even developed a new way to write notes quickly. Fast enough to allow a person to speak freely.

””As I said when I started, this is my version of my story and it’s a bit unclear when it actually starts or if it really ends here.””

””But you didn’t say how you managed to get here with us!””

Now I just grinned at the young women. ””That’s because I have no idea. I was knocked unconscious.””

Kara, who had been sitting next to me, just snorted.

””We just had to do it that way. Otherwise, that idiot might really have attacked those remaining Trolls all alone!””

After saying that, Kara just flipped my hair as though hitting me. I didn’t duck but took the hit - and smiled before looking back at those two documentarists.

””Like I said, that part of the story is not mine to tell. However, I’m sure that Kara here can help you.””

Kara sighed deeply, but I knew that secretly she was happy that she would be able to tell them that part of the story. I leaned backwards and laid down on the short, green grass. I smelled the grass when I closed my eyes again and allowed my thoughts to wander while listening to Kara. Of course I knew exactly what had happened. During the last years I had heard the story several times: ‘A great warrior gets knocked out of the battle by two small women’. They thought it was hilarious.

Back then, my women had quickly guessed that something odd was going on and together they had been keeping an eye on me - spying on me - and I had been too focused on my own mission to notice it. With help from Linnea, they had been able to figure everything out quite accurately.

I opened my eyes and looked at the white clouds against the blue sky for a while before closing my eyes again. I heard Kara’s voice like it was coming from distance.

””We weren’t able to figure out any real fault in his plans, but yet, we needed to figure out a way to help get our man back to his family. After all, there are a few things he’s quite good at...””

It took the four of them half a day to find my notes about peeking - because of her short Magician history, Kara had been able to show them how to combine their magical strength. While some of them did their best to keep an eye on me the others tried to figure out the final secrets of opening the gates. The fact that you couldn’t open a gate from their new world to the old one anymore did not stop them from opening a small gate to some different world - and from there immediately to the old world. The gates didn’t need to be big or last very long - and they risked some of their health and used a little bit of the same herbs I’d had in my pocket.

Most likely they would have come to me sooner but avoiding the sensing of those Troll Magicians also had made me hard or almost impossible to ‘peek’ at, accurately. However, their peeking explained the occasional feelings of sensing them that I’d had, while I had been on the run. I had just thought it had been the Troll Magicians or that I had just missed them so much. Well, I had.

I opened my eyes again and looked at the way Kara’s dark hair shone in the light of the afternoon sun. I wondered if it had been the smell of coffee that I had sensed, or maybe I just wanted my coffee so much that I hoped that I had sensed it. Either way, I knew that I wanted to have a cup of coffee soon. My second for today - we had had to limit the usage since it took a bit longer to get a decent crop out of the plants.

”” ... and do you believe that at first, this idiot here was almost angry at being rescued! He explained something stupid about the ‘honor of the warrior’ and so on. Luckily it didn’t last long...””

Again I allowed my mind to wander but I couldn’t help smiling. I had not been able to fight my final battle against all those Trolls, but it didn’t bother me or the warrior anymore. Besides, the day after tomorrow I would again go hunting with one granddaughter who shares my love of nature and wild animals. For a while I have been planning to show her how the brown bears of this world hunt, just like my father had shown me.